Another pickling question: help with overabundance of cukes?

The same neighbor who gave us several crates of cubers from his garden told us his father used to keep a bucket of brine in the barn and just tossed cukes into it routinely, especially ones that were too big to eat on salad or whatever, ones that otherwise might be tossed into the compsot. So he tells us it was just a big plastic bucket, not a special crock or anything. We went to Home Depot and bought a huge bucket, cleaned it well, but I'm still a little hesitant to just make pickles and not have them refrigerated or heat canned. Has anyone tried this at home? My husband insists that the vinegar and salt and spices will be natural preservative and we have nothing to worry about except stirring it once in a while and adding more brine as necessary.